"When you get to this stage, every game, every practice really means something," said Shawnee boys' basketball coach Joe Kessler, who knows a little bit about extending his season.
In the previous 20 years, Shawnee has played in a sectional final 14 times, a staggering 70 percent rate. The Renegades have captured one Tournament of Champions title, five state championships, and 10 sectional crowns, including last year's South Jersey Group 4 title.
Despite that staggering success, Kessler's palms are just as sweaty for yet another potential run at a sectional title. For Kessler, the anticipation seems to heighten with each new postseason.
"There's such a great challenge to it," he said. "You wake up each day knowing that the next round is only going to get tougher."
There are moments that will never leave a player's memory bank, and certainly that is the case for Haddon Township senior Sara DeCinque.
In decades down the line, DeCinque will vividly remember her game-winning three-pointer with 27 seconds left that gave Haddon Township a 47-46 overtime win in the South Jersey Group 1 final last year against visiting Gloucester.
The gym was packed, and when she hit the shot, the decibel level in the Haddon Township gym was off the charts.
Imagine the feeling of hitting the game-winning shot in a championship setting.
"I will never forget that game and that entire experience," DeCinque said.
Not only the outcome, but also the atmosphere that is so prevalent in the state tournament.
"It's such an exhilarating feeling knowing they are cheering for you," DeCinque said. "Our crowd is great."
On game day, there is just a different feel, a much springier bounce in the collective steps of the participants.
